Page 49 - Studio International - December 1972

wood, or iron block-like forms were shaped the eye from the forms it is supporting.
Concepts and into geometrical, straight-edged lines. When Kadishman's use of glass in his sculpture
confronted directly, most of these sculptures follows from Duchamp's use of the same
their realization could be seen as two-dimensional figures which material in his Large Glass: 'I use transparent
had been given a third dimension (like glass', Duchamp explained, 'again to get away
Segments 1968, at the Museum of Modern from any possibility of placing this work in a
Mordechai Omer Art, New York, 1970). The explanation for material world. I want it to fly off
this feature lies in Kadishman's strong need completely, to escape all conventions'. In
to preserve the original shapes of the a further interview he put forward another
segregated parts or sections. reason: 'The transparency of the glass is
'Concepts and their realization' (Kunzepte The main use of the glass sheets was as important, because it gives an effect of
und Ihre verwirklichung) was the sub-title of supports for the forms, but in addition glass depth, instead of that annoying feeling the
Menashe Kadishman's exhibition at the as material defines its own space and because background of a painting has'. Through being
Krefeld. The realms evoked by the two words of its transparent quality does not distract freed from the 'annoying feeling' of the
'concept' and 'realization', and their supports of the sculpture, Kadishman's forms
interrelation, encompass the critical continue to float on the open air. Vulnerable
preoccupations of contemporary art. From the to the pull of gravity, they are positioned at
beginning of this century, there has been a unstable angles, at the risk of falling at any
strong tendency to shift art towards the mental moment.
rather than the visual. Duchamp's break- While in a work like Segments, 1968, the
through, which required that we 'Get away gravitational tension is gracefully balanced,
from the physical aspect of painting. . (and) in later works — such as Signal I, 1969, or
put painting once again at the service of the Through, 1970 — a much stronger tension is
mind', and Malevich's notion that 'Art should produced. The falling hand of Signal I, is
have nothing to do with the object as such, suspended in mid-air and the metal block of
believing that it can exist, in and for itself, Through penetrates the sheet of glass that holds
without things', were non-conformist ideas it. These works gave way to In-Out,1972, a
in their day. Now they have become the direct development of Through, fused with a
prototypes of artistic thinking. Duchamp's new conceptual preoccupation with
anticipation of his final product as 'a wedding exterior-interior relationships. In this piece,
of mental and visual revelation' is still a a straight pipe makes its way from the gallery
profound force behind Jasper Johns's directly through the glass window into the
appreciation of the master's art: 'Its open air. The part of the pipe situated outside,
cross-references of sight and thought, the left unprotected against climatic changes,
changing focus of the eyes and mind, give is being eaten up by rust, while variations in
fresh sense to the time and space we occupy'. temperature cause air to circulate in and out
By the time of Duchamp's death, artistic of the room through the hollow pipe. The
preoccupation focused on the mind to such an preoccupation with exterior-interior is also
extent that the realization of the concept was manifest in Doorway Blocked with Broken
considered quite immaterial. The resulting Glass. The chunks of glass filling up and
visual indifference sees no need for any spilling through the doorway imply rather than
responsibility towards making objects and at depict the space the door frame encloses. The
times even protests against any such prismatic puzzle of in-out-doors delineated
responsibility. Sharing Wittgenstein's view by these jagged edges of translucent glass is
that 'The thought is the language', the created by the light-changes acting upon the
vanguard of Duchamp's followers demanded light-deflecting surfaces. In its psychological
the complete stripping away of the retinal. manifestation, this work calls to mind
If, for Duchamp himself, 'There doesn't have enclosure images from the vocabulary of
to be a lot of the conceptual for me to like surrealist iconography.
something', for the artist in the second In the Krefeld's park there was a third
half of our century partisanship for the version of The Forest, first executed as a
conceptual is taken to the point of excluding permanent installation in a Montevideo park
its realization altogether. in 1969. The second Forest was temporarily
Kadishman's most recent works, which he installed in Manhattan's Central Park on the
executed on the spot at the Krefeld, serve as occasion of Kadishman's show at the Jewish
illustrations to a documentation of realized Museum. In all three versions, standardized
concepts. However, before discussing the rectangular metal sheets, shaped with hard
artist's more conceptual works, a quick look edges and painted bright yellow, were
at his development is required. scattered throughout the forest, attached to
Kadishman's 1970 exhibition at the Jewish (Top) the trunks of trees. The Forest is neither the
Segments 1968
Museum, New York, was inevitably a prelude Installation view Museum of Modern Art, rectangular yellow sheets nor the living trees
to the one at the Krefeld. The sculptures he New York, 1970 alone, but is the tension engendered by their
showed at the earlier exhibition were (Centre) interaction. Working upon one another, they
characterized by the structural simplicity of Through 1970 produce a gratuitous interplay of forms which
Installation view Jewish Museum, New York
clean and solid forms composed on sheets of is beyond the capacity of any single picture
(Bottom)
glass. Containing secondary implications plane. This effect, as well as the fact that the
In-Out 1971-72
only in the choice of material, these stone, Installation view Krefeld, 1972 project is greatly dependent on time and space,
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